The Scariest Opponent of All
by Stylin' Breeze
Summary: Not one but two people sneaked into Shiratorizawa's training camp.


**Season 4 Episode 1 spoilers**

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The training camp was in the works for a couple of weeks. Johzenji's second-years on the volleyball team watched their coach interrupt practice to take a phone call from Shiratorizawa's coaching staff at least once a day. Eventually school break came, and then the day for camp invitations, and none arrived for anyone from Johzenji (not that any of them were surprised). Terushima licked his lips at the thought of so many solid players in one place. His coach was helping form the next round of opponents. It was a prime scouting opportunity.

Infiltrating Shiratorizawa Academy proved easier than expected. Terushima snagged a Shiratorizawa jacket and a pair of pants lying in the locker room, and sauntered into the gym inconspicuously. The coaches had stepped out while the students continued a 3-on-3. Monitoring the game from a bench near the locker room, Terushima eyed each play and each player closely. Karasuno's bespectacled blond was here. On the sidelines, the zippy #10 darted along the sidelines shagging volleyballs.

When one player spiked a ball fiercely into the floor for a point, Terushima couldn't help clap raucously.

The game stopped as everyone beheld the bystander who sashayed over to them.

"Man, that was slick," Terushima said. None of the younger boys expected to have a Shiratorizawa player watching them. Goshiki tilted his head, never having seen this kid before in his life but not wanting to risk embarrassment by saying something and being wrong.

Kei narrowed his eyes, disgusted by Terushima clearly pretending to be another school's student. Hinata, holding the volleyball that had just been spiked, peered up curiously at the smirking bystander when his memory clicked.

"Wait. You're the guy from Johzenji," Shouyou said.

Terushima pressed his index finger to his mouth and pretended to whisper. "Shhhhh. No one knows I'm here," he said, not caring that he'd just betrayed his game to a dozen witnesses. He merely banked that none of them were unscrupulous enough to be a tattletale.

Shouyou pressed hard against the volleyball in his grip. Yuuji sneaking in had just reminded Shouyou of his own predicament. Terushima leaned back, discouraged by the boy's pent-up annoyance.

"If you stay," Hinata suddenly foreboded, "they'll make you a _ball boy_…."

"They'll make me a what?" Yuuji replied before a hand landed on his shoulder.

A deep, booming voice spoke matter-of-factly. "You do not attend this school."

Terushima smirked and peered at the gauche speaker.

"Heh. And what's it to you?"

He made eye contact with the towering form of Wakatoshi Ushijima. Yuuji felt the tremendous aura of the man, instantly hopped back, and raised his hands in a karate pose.

He'd expected to get challenged but didn't anticipate _actual senior Shiratorizawa players_ to pop in. From the locker room doorway, Satori Tendou peered around the threshold at Ushijima's conversation with the interloper. "Ooh. Wakatoshi's makin' friends."

Then Kenjirou Shirabu appeared, still dressed in his school uniform, lividly staring down the intruder. "Hey! That's _my_ jacket and _my_ pants!"

And now the jig was up. Terushima glanced at Hinata to say a teasing farewell from their reunion before planning to skedaddle. "Oops. Gotta run."

But before he could move, Coach Takaaki Anabara entered and instantaneously recognized his own student in Shiratorizawa's colors.

"_Terushima_!"

And now Yuuji knew he was in _real_ trouble.

In the office that hours earlier had been occupied by Anabara and Washijou dealing with their other intruder of the day, Terushima slouched in a chair, avoiding eye contact with his angry coach seated opposite.

"What on earth would possess you to come here?"

"You know I have to be here," Yuuji asserted with zero regret. "I need to scout our future opponents."

"I'm aware of that," Anabara said before his frustration broiled up, "but your _complete lack of sense_—"

Terushima flinched at not finding sympathy from his own coach. And then Anabara's hopes of completing his shakedown of Yuuji before Coach Washijou arrived was dashed when the elderly man whipped open the office door.

"Why are there _two_ people sneakin' into the camp?!"

Terushima instantly noted the insinuation that another person had shown up uninvited. "What?! Someone had the gall to actually sneak in here?! What a loser."

"You need to shut up _now_," rebuked Anabara.

Washijou was seething, and Anabara was not at all pleased with Yuuji's stunt. All right. His gambit had failed, Terushima accepted.

But then another idea popped into his head to salvage the situation. Terushima startled his coach by diving onto hands and knees at the adult's feet.

"Coach, I understand what I did was wrong and unacceptable. There's no excuse for it. But I want to make amends for causing so much disruption and embarrassment." And he recalled the cryptic thing Shouyou Hinata had said to him moments earlier. "Please…let me stay on as a ball boy!"

It was a great idea. Terushima could portray himself as repentant, soothe the two adults' consciences, and get as much scouting done as possible. It was a win-win—for Terushima anyway.

Anabara was arrested by the fact that Yuuji was proposing the same punishment for himself that had been bestowed on Shouyou Hinata. And so, it was Tanji Washijou who spoke first, after a long inhale.

"Anabara," he began. Terushima's eyes lit up with hope and expectation. "Yer kid best leave right now, or I'll have the principal charge him with trespassin'."

And suddenly the gushing anticipation drained from his body.

"Consider it done," Anabara replied coldly and fixed his glasses. "Terushima, go home. We'll talk after break," he concluded with a threatening tone.

"Yes, Coach," Yuuji guiltily answered.

Terushima left the premises but didn't go home. He had bragged to every one of his teammates of his scheme and guaranteed them he'd be 100% successful. Stretched out on a public bench beneath leafless trees in the nippy air, he typed in the club chatroom, fabricating tales of his clever escapade and sharing fake intel.

It ended when Higashiyama came on and accused Terushima of lying and of never actually making it inside. Terushima didn't want to futilely defend himself, so he put away his phone and wiped from his mind whatever speculations the team might have now.

It was dark by now. He was done loitering and decided to head home, which happened to be within walking distance.

And then, in the darkness, a figure emerged from Shiratorizawa's grounds.

A dejected boy rolled a bike alongside him, not making eye contact with Terushima as he passed. Yuuji recognized the short kid immediately and dashed alongside Shouyou Hinata.

"Hey. Where you goin'?"

Hinata flinched at the question. He stuttered before forcing out a terse response. "Home."

"Oh, did they run out of space in the dorms?" Yuuji asked, but Hinata said nothing. Terushima kept walking with the boy, paying no mind to his uncharacteristic reticence.

"You know, I think the suckiest part is I didn't get to see _you_ rotate in," Yuuji said, having only seen Shouyou catching loose balls on the sidelines. When Shouyou didn't react to that either, Terushima pressed on. "But, man, Shiratorizawa's coach is a real pisser, isn't he?"

Still no reaction from the depressed boy. Mildly irritated, Terushima stuck his hands in his pockets and changed the subject.

"Where do you live anyway?"

This time Hinata answered. Terushima had to think about the place Hinata said. It was located on the other side of the mountains from the town where Karasuno was located.

"Dude! You live far! And they still wouldn't let you stay?"

And then Hinata's melancholy reappeared. He paused, stared at the ground with self-pity, and then resumed walking in silence. Terushima halted and watched the boy plodding on, confused by the profound difference in personality from the kid he saw on the court.

And then, with the adrenaline rush of a eureka moment, he recalled Washijou's cry of _two_ people sneaking into the camp….

"Wait a minute. You…" Terushima darted beside Hinata. "You weren't invited, were you?"

Shouyou halted and bit his lip.

But Terushima, realizing his deduction was right, couldn't help but grin.

"I like your spunk," he complimented and smacked Shouyou endearingly on the back. Hinata blushed, it being the first time today he'd gotten _any_ positive feedback on his daringness.

"You aren't planning to go back tomorrow, are you?" Terushima pushed.

His energy miraculously restored, Hinata swiveled toward Yuuji.

"Totally!" he decreed.

"Seriously? They let you stay as just a ball boy, and you don't even let that get you down? Boy, you're something else."

They were quiet for a second. Hinata needed to get home before it got too, too late; but before he kept marching, Yuuji gave him a gentle, inviting smile. "Hey. I'm just 30 minutes from here. Want to crash at my place tonight?"

The pair discussed the players who had been legitimately invited to the camp, and before they knew it they came to Terushima's house. Yuuji laid out a sleeping bag for his guest on the floor of his bedroom and plopped into bed. Hinata was exhausted, and his eyelids batted heavily.

"You know," Terushima said, his body rolled so that his back was to Hinata, "I didn't get to see that much of practice, but I think I already know who the scariest future opponent is going to be."

Hinata peered in the speaker's direction, but there came no elaboration. Believing Terushima to have passed out, Hinata let himself be taken away to sleep as well.

Meanwhile, eyes wide open and mind wide awake, Terushima stared straight ahead thinking about that scary player:

Anyone daring enough to come all the way out here to try to sneak into a training camp would be capable of so many other unpredictable things, he thought. And that, in his opinion, made Shouyou Hinata the scariest opponent of all….

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**Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review. :)**


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